# The Business of Art

When you write something and present it to the world, it’s exciting. It might feel like a dream come true. But what they don’t tell you is that it’s also terrifying.

They did not want to collaborate with me. They wanted to use me. And thankfully, I was smart enough to see the difference.

Clearly there is a knowledge gap out there … there’s something that a hell of a lot of writers out there need to know, and they don’t know it right now.

But for our other mediums we must travel to what some cynics describe as the least truthful place of all—Hollywood.

It was time to grow. I could see it coming miles away, and I knew it wouldn’t be pleasant.

It's more valuable that you know how people answer their own questions without your input, since you won't always be in the room when audiences experience your work.

"I’ve become, like many of my peers, frustrated with the machinations of getting a film made in Hollywood ... I’m only interested in work that speaks to me on a very personal and intimate level.’’

Mistake 3: Accidentally direct-messaging an agent on Twitter who I thought was my IRL childhood friend.

Buy more hats. You'll need them. You’re an artist, a writer, a creator, a professional, and a business person.

Writing might be kind of a solitary endeavor, but publishing is very collaborative—it won't be just you anymore.

Stand in front of that mirror and ask, “Self, do you want to have a writing career? Are you willing to dare to be vulnerable? To speak positively about yourself and your work?"

“Be careful of what you wish for,” my dad said, as I popped my first letter to Jerry Bruckheimer in the mail.

As “working screenwriters” who’d already at that point grown terminally ill of the bureaucracy surrounding film productions and the industry in general, we vowed to make this maverick film completely outside of the traditional channels and system.

"That moment has got to feel like the greatest moment of this guy's life, you know, like we're behind him and not in front of him."

When the editors had a story idea that could get a journalist maimed or killed, I was among the first scribes they’d reach out to.